Strange but True: The year's weirdest news stories

2010 was a weird year, with nothing weirder than the race for governor, which saw the leading Republican nominee go down in a plagiarism scandal while his opponent became a joke and a former Republican made an amazing run as a third-party candidate.

Perhaps the best way to examine the fates of the five people involved, however, is through their favorite two-wheeled vehicles.

Governor Bill Ritter, who'd announced in January that he was not running for re-election, crashed his bike and broke a couple of ribs in March. Tom Tancredo roared onto the scene with a lot of noise and flash, but took a spill on his motorcycle in September. And despite not wearing a helmet, he came out unscathed, almost energized.

Dan Maes stuck to his car — but then, he couldn't claim mileage reimbursements for a bike. Besides, he alleged that John Hickenlooper's B-cycle program, which debuted in April, was part of a larger plot to cede control of U.S. cities to the United Nations. His charge that Hickenlooper's agenda, and B-cycle in particular, are "converting Denver into a United Nations community" may well have been the weirdest story in this weird year.

"This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," Maes told the Denver Post. "This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms.... These aren't just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to."

Maes's outlandish ramblings helped Hick, a longtime lover of both bicycles and scooters, roll over the competition on his way to the finish line.

And then there was Scott McInnis, who let other people do the riding for him.

But politicians didn't have a monopoly on strange in 2010 — not by a long shot. Enjoy the rest of these tales from the year that was.

Weirdest Stories of the Year

In January, supermarkets began sporting bottles of Gatorade whose original labels had been removed and replaced by pictures of golfer Tiger Woods with his now-ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, and the word "unfaithful." Food and Drug Administration officials eventually discovered an e-mail address hidden in the labels, which led them to 38-year-old Jason Eric Kay of Longmont. Kay confessed to purchasing dozens of Gatorade bottles, changing the labels and returning them to the store. The stunt was a form of pop art, he said, intended to create conversation about why Gatorade had dropped Woods as a spokesman; Kay even offered to do the project for Gatorade as an official marketing scheme. Federal agents didn't appreciate Kay's artistic sensibilities, however, and charged him with product tampering. In May, he was sentenced to two years of probation and a $1,000 fine.

In October, Tiffany Hartley, a longtime Colorado resident who'd recently moved to Texas, told police a harrowing, almost unbelievable tale. While she and her husband, David, had been jet-skiing on Falcon Lake, which straddles the border between Texas and Mexico, a group of people on a boat had opened fire, hitting her husband and knocking him into the water. Unable to rescue her husband, Tiffany fled. David Hartley's body has never been found, and the incident spawned an official American protest of the way the Mexican government handled the case. Two suspects, allegedly members of a drug cartel, were eventually identified by a Mexican investigator, who later was found dead and beheaded. Two other suspects have since been identified, but no one has been arrested. Tiffany is now safely back in Colorado.

A suspicious fire that gutted the Sheepskin Factory store on Colorado Boulevard in April turned out to be the work of a radical animal activist. Walter Bond, 34, was charged with arson in June, shortly after someone calling himself Lone Wolf from the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the fire in an online posting. "The arson at the Sheepskin Factory in Denver was done in defense and retaliation for all the innocent animals that have died cruelly at the hands of human oppressors," the post stated, according to 9News. Bond, who has the word "vegan" tattooed in large letters across his throat, pleaded guilty in November.

Montana truck driver Kathleen Folden was so incensed by stories about a controversial piece of artwork that may or may not have depicted Jesus in a sex act that she got in her rig, drove to Loveland and walked into the Loveland Museum. There she used a crowbar to smash the glass in front of "The Misadventures of Romantic Cannibals" and ripped up the painting. Loveland had already been a-twitter about the work by Enrique Chagoya, but this act of vandalism propelled the city into the national spotlight. Folden, 56, was charged with felony criminal mischief and has pleaded not guilty.

On November 15, Australian twins Kristin and Candice Hermeler, who were in the United States on a three-month visa, walked into the Family Shooting Center gun range at Cherry Creek State Park, took target practice for a while with rented pistols, and then shot themselves in the head. One died, the other suffered severe head wounds — although it took a while for authorities to figure out that it was Candice who had survived. The 29-year-old women had apparently entered into a suicide pact; investigators found a will and notes left by one of the twins. They also discovered personal documents and news clippings about the Columbine High School shootings in 1999.

Bad Dads

In January, Colorado Springs police were called to a local McDonald's on a report of a man who'd passed out drunk in the children's play area, where his two kids were playing. And while that's something most fathers would probably like to do, it isn't really appropriate. When the cops arrived, they identified Joshua Alger, 28, and determined that he had a warrant out for his arrest — on a charge of obstructing police. At that point, they say, Alger began fighting with them and ordered his kids to "bite the officers' faces off." After a wrestling match in which one officer was kicked in the face, the cops eventually tasered Alger. He was charged with assaulting a police officer.

Transportation Safety Administration employees busted a man and his daughter in September when they tried to go through security at Denver International Airport with a loaded .22. Although the gun was inside the girl's purse, police also charged her father, 44-year-old James Mueller, who said he gave the gun to his daughter for protection.

Grand Junction dad Jack Duke, 27, was arrested in October and charged with teaching his six- and seven-year-old daughters how to smoke pot. Staffers at Nisley Elementary called the cops after the six-year-old tried to start a fire with a Bic lighter and a wad of toilet paper. According to police, the girl told administrators that "when she doesn't feel good, she smokes 'weed' with her dad, and her dad blows the smoke in her face."

Last January, Raul Gaucin-Valenzuela and a friend put on a couple of bandannas and broke into a house to beat someone up. They might have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for a couple of meddling kids: Gaucin-Valenzuela's kids, who happened to be at that house and identified Pops — despite the bandanna.

School's Out

In September, University of Colorado senior Julien Lounis demanded that the school reimburse him for the $401.40 he'd spent to travel to California to watch the Buffs take on the University of California, Berkeley, a game in which CU was crushed 52-7. "With high hopes of at least a good game, I was truly disheartened and disappointed with the football program's effort," Lounis wrote, according to the Boulder Daily Camera. "Unless you can provide an explanation as to why we consistently perform so poorly, I would like to be reimbursed for my trip." CU wasn't amused, and declined to pay Lounis back.

In April, a group of students from Leadville High School asked Lake County sheriff's deputy John Ortega what it felt like to be tasered. The students, who were attending a job fair, promised to sign release forms if Ortega would agree to taser them. They did and he did — tasering 34 kids on their legs. Ortega, who was subsequently charged with child abuse and reckless endangerment, ultimately resigned from the force.

Southern-style chicken, collard greens and peach pie. That was Martin Luther King Jr.'s favorite meal, and the reason that Denver Public Schools decided to offer it to students in January. But the menu also furthered stereotypes about black people, according to a parent who complained. After a brief furor, DPS withdrew the menu and apologized for what it called a "well-intentioned but highly insensitive" attempt to honor King.

Mann Middle School in Colorado Springs doesn't allow students to wear crosses or rosaries outside of their clothing, in keeping with a school-district policy inspired by local gangs that use the images. The ban led to protests in September, not just from the family of a cross-wearing thirteen-year-old boy who threatened to sue the school district, but from the ACLU and a Washington, D.C., law firm. The district eventually clarified its policy, saying that crosses could be worn openly but that rosaries had to be worn underneath a student's clothes.

Animal Instincts

Kitchi the river otter is either brilliant and free — or dead. In March, Kitchi and three other otters broke out of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs and went on the lam. While the other otters were recaptured, Kitchi was not. Although zoo officials were still finding signs of Kitchi weeks later, they eventually gave up the hunt.

A ten-year-old miniature dachshund named Spork caused an uproar in March after the dog bit a veterinary tech at a Lafayette animal hospital, causing serious damage to her face and lips. The dog's owner was cited for having a vicious dog, despite a state law that exempts dogs that bite animal-care workers, and the story went national, frustrating city officials in the Boulder County town. A judge eventually issued a deferred judgment for Spork, meaning he wouldn't have to be caged or euthanized as long as he didn't bite anyone else for six months.

"The white one wants my flesh." Zombie attack? No, those were the words of Lafayette cyclist Erich Toll, 47, who has had an ongoing dispute with another man and his two dogs — Olivia, a small, white American Eskimo, and Mars, a boxer — near a trail in Boulder County open space. In September, the tension came to a head when the dogs charged at Toll and he pepper-sprayed both of them, along with owner Peter West, 66. Toll said he had fallen and was still clipped to his bike and used the pepper spray in self-defense. The police said Toll was within his rights to do so; they fined West $55 for having a dog at large.

A badly burned cat that was rescued after the Fourmile Canyon fire in September turned out to belong to a woman who lives in south Denver, nearly fifty miles from Boulder County. No one knows how the black cat, nicknamed Sizzle by rescuers, got from one place to the other. Owner Lori Church recognized Sizzle — whose real name is Morgan — from pictures posted in news accounts; the four-year-old cat had disappeared a month earlier.

A peacock at the Denver Zoo attacked a three-year-old boy on a school field trip in June, sending him to the hospital for six stitches on his nose and four in his forehead. The peacock was detained, the motive for the attack unknown. But perhaps it was jealous of the bronze peacock statue, titled "Eternal Good Fortune," that had been installed at the zoo two months earlier.

A massive bee swarm descended on the 16th Street Mall in May, prompting a police response. Eventually, do-good beekeeper Seneca Kristjonsdottir arrived by bicycle, towing a trailer. She gathered up all the bees and created a new hive with them.

Loveland beekeeper John Frost, 68, was hurt in November when he got caught in a booby trap he'd made to protect his hives from a bear. At first Frost told police that his shotgun went off accidentally, but after they investigated his property, he admitted that he had set up a tripwire attached to the shotgun so that if the bear returned, the gun would fire.

A cat named Moses that was stranded on top of a thirty-foot power pole in Centennial for three days in May was rescued by Xcel Energy employees after neighbors gave up their attempts. Xcel had at first refused to turn off the power, telling the Denver Post, "We do not go out and get cats off poles, because we put our workers at risk." The company later relented.

In January, a Denver police dog named Duke jumped from a parked patrol car after it spotted a deer and gave chase. The K-9 officer followed, but lost the dog. The two were eventually reunited when a citizen spotted the German shepherd. No arrests were made.

In August, two people dumped a sick bat in the drop box at a rescue shelter in El Paso County with a note that read: "Bat hurt please help." Turns out the bat had rabies, and health officials conducted a search for the bat's donors in case they were infected; after a two-week hunt, they were finally found and tested.

High Country

During the twenty years he's lived in Aspen, Dan Sheridan has seen a lot of changes — changes for the worse. Last New Year's Day, the 44-year-old musician performed his 2003 song about these changes, "Big Money," at Sneaky's, a bar owned by the Aspen Skiing Company — and was promptly fired. After patrons protested, the company said it had made a mistake and offered to bring him back. Here's a sample of the lyrics:

Well it happened in Aspen

And down in Santa Fe

It happens everywhere when the locals move away

They can't afford to live here, they can't afford the rent

Unless they win the lottery or live in a tent

I think big money sucks

Please write that down

Please take a look what it did to this town

Trophy houses, trophy wives, trophy people leading trophy lives

Down in the graves you can hear the miners say

Big money ruins everything.

Khory Nathan Gagner wanted nachos, and nothing was going to stop him. In December, the 21-year-old Gagner reportedly broke into the Fine Line Bar & Grill near Aspen, stole some cash, smashed surveillance cameras and started a fire while trying to make himself nachos. He was caught that afternoon when he couldn't outrun his pursuers because his pants were sagging almost down to his knees. Bar owner Ben Levy told the Aspen Times that the burglar "had bacon in the oven and punched through the plastic that covered our pizza toppings. He had a to-go box with cheese in it. I'm not sure if he was on round two, but he got down four bags of chips, so he must have been hungry." After cleaning and reopening his place, Levy began offering half-price nachos — which he's considering making a house specialty.

Really High Country

Fountain city councilman Harold Thompson got into a scuffle with a citizen named Al Lender at a city council meeting in June, according to police reports. The city was discussing its medical marijuana ordinance and had just decided that some land Lender owned wasn't zoned for pot; during the break, Lender began swearing at the council reps and calling them names. Finally, Thompson had had enough and punched Lender in the head. Prosecutors decided not to press charges against him.

In November, Denver police notified parents at Regis Jesuit and Cherry Creek high schools that someone may have been trying to solicit money from students to start a medical marijuana dispensary. The police called the effort a "Ponzi scheme" but wouldn't say why, according to the Denver Post. Two students, ages sixteen and seventeen, were said to be involved, possibly as victims.

Three Fort Carson soldiers were charged with burglary in December after police said they broke into a Colorado Springs medical marijuana dispensary and got caught inside when the doors locked. "We were just trying to get rid of all the marijuana," one of the soldiers, Ramone Hollins, 22, told police.

The Long Arm of the Law

Two teenagers who tried to steal a purple Ford Explorer were caught when Colorado Springs police noticed the car lurching back and forth up the street, according to the daily Gazette. Apparently, neither would-be thief knew how to drive a stick.

A man who stole two packages of cold medication from a Boulder King Soopers in June was arrested after he tried to escape capture by jumping into Boulder Creek. But before they could make the arrest, police had to rescue him from the rushing water after he called for help.

Four teenage boys in Durango were busted after police accused them of firing a small homemade cannon at a bicyclist riding in the Colorado Trail Jamboree, a fundraiser benefiting people with multiple sclerosis. Ian Altman, 37, who has the disease and is the organizer of the yearly event, was riding his bike that July morning when the cannon went off about eighteen inches from his legs, police said. Particulates were embedded in Altman's body, and he had to be hospitalized.

Denver police evacuated a government building at 303 West Colfax Avenue in April after someone reported a ticking sound in the restroom and thought it might be a bomb. But all police were able to find in the bathroom was a pair of blue pants.

Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio, who was sentenced in 2007 to six years in prison and a $71 million fine for insider trading, complained in June that Pennsylvania prison officials had denied him visitors for six weeks, held him in solitary confinement for eight days and refused him his medication when he was traveling back to Pennsylvania from a court hearing in Denver. In fact, said Nacchio, who'd showed up at the hearing with a shaved head and a goatee, the return trip took 34 days. Prisoner trips can take a long time, a prison official responded.

In Boulder one November evening, a police officer watched a woman on a bicycle run a red light and smack into a car that was waiting for her to cross the street. The bicyclist then hit the median, fell off the bike, got back on and hit the median again. That's when the officer stopped nineteen-year-old Patricia Forget, whose blood alcohol content was .215. She was arrested and booked.

In November, the Denver Police Department's bomb squad blew up an eight-inch toy robot that someone had cemented to a pillar beneath a bridge at 20th and Wazee streets. A passerby had called in a report of the suspicious object, prompting police to close off the area.

Government in Action

In January, state senator Suzanne Williams continued a long tradition of progressive folly by proposing a law that would have forced high schools with American Indian mascots — like the Savages and the Fightin' Reds — to get approval from the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs to keep using them. Williams, an Aurora Democrat, was concerned that the names and associated images tend to further Native American stereotypes. Her proposal was rounded up and shot down.

Republican state representative Mike May responded to Suzanne Williams's proposal by jokingly suggesting a ban on "cougars" — older women who hunt for younger men — as high-school mascots (there are at least seven).

Jordyn Lucas of Aurora became the 1st prsn 2B busted under the state's new law forbidding texting while driving. Lucas, who was nineteen at the time, crashed her car into a median on January 3, according to the Aurora Sentinel.

Denver voters soundly rejected a proposal to create a commission charged with preparing the city for contact with extraterrestrials. Initiative 300 would have allowed commission members to "participate from anywhere in the universe by any means available." But organizer Jeff Peckman, who was able to collect enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot, was philosophical after its loss. "It's better than what we thought," he told the Denver Post. "This was always about engaging the voters and getting them involved. These things can take time."

Like a lot of people, Jason Clark uses Craigslist when he's looking for something. In this case, Clark was looking for a running mate for his quest for the Colorado governorship as an Independent. In May, he advertised on the site for a lieutenant governor and eventually selected a woman named Victoria Adams; the story attracted the attention of everyone from Rachel Maddow to Jay Leno. But Adams dropped out in September, citing personal reasons, so Clark returned to Craigslist. This time, he had a wish list of specific people, including John or Janet Elway, Pete Coors and Josh Penry. None answered the ad, and Clark lost the race.

In June, the Denver Post published a page-one story claiming that a pair of moon rocks given to Colorado governor John Vanderhoof in 1974 had mysteriously disappeared; the rocks were part of a series brought back by Apollo 17 that President Richard Nixon gave to the governors of all fifty states. Turns out that no one looking for the rocks had called Vanderhoof himself, who now lives in Grand Junction. So Channel 7 did the next day and discovered that — surprise! — the former governor, now 88, had them on display. In August, the rocks were installed at the Colorado School of Mines, where they will stay.

You Boob, You Lose

Lucy the Slut has lots of cleavage. Lucy the Slut has pink skin and blond hair. Lucy the Slut is a puppet. In February, the Colorado Springs outlet of Lamar Advertising rejected a billboard for the Broadway musical Avenue Q, which would have shown a lot of Lucy. "If I have to explain it to my four-year-old or my grandmother, we don't put it up," Lamar account exec Jeff Moore told the Gazette.

Andrew "Ted" Yosses was expecting a striptease when he let two women into his Fort Collins apartment in January. Instead, he was robbed, tied up and punched in the face by a man working with the women, according to reports. Police eventually arrested and charged Hector Cruz, Audrey Aguilar and Bernadette Hamby in the case.

At least thirty people took part in the No Pants! Subway Ride in January, wearing only their underwear while they rode a Denver light-rail train. The prank was part of a nationwide flash mob that originated in New York and now takes place every year.

It's a $2.5 million mobile command post that Denver International Airport uses for everything from runway emergencies to repairing bridges. But an airport employee and the Denver firefighter she liked to hook up with probably liked to think of it as their Love Machine. In November, DIA officials admitted to CBS4 that the two had been using the state-of-the-art truck for sex while they were on the job; the veteran firefighter, who was stationed at DIA, has since resigned, while the airport worker was fired. The liaisons were discovered because their "sex romps," as CBS4 called them, were captured by a motion-activated camera — just one of many, er, slick high-tech gadgets on board the truck.

The Denver area got its first glimpse of the bikini-baristas craze in 2010 when three different stores opened in the area. The first of these, Perky Cups in Aurora, was forced to close after a dispute with the landlord that may or may not have had to do with baristas parading around the parking lot in next to nothing. The sight prompted Aurora City Councilwoman Molly Markert to call for a boycott of Perky Cups, saying, "When one of [the] employees is raped and murdered, we will all mourn the loss."

There's nothing like the feeling of sunshine on your back when you're tending to the flowers in your garden. Nothing like feeling sunshine on your back — or on your naked boobs. Boulder's Catharine Pierce, 52, knows that feeling. She's been asked twice now to stop gardening nearly naked, according to news reports. The first time was in 2009, when Pierce wore just pasties and a thong — a horticultural costume that nearly got her evicted. The second time was this past March, when she abandoned the pasties altogether. Neighbors called police, and when a cop arrived, he asked her to think about putting on a shirt, since there is a school nearby. At that point, Pierce's husband, Robert, called the police himself to complain about the first officer. After all, being topless in Boulder isn't against the law.

The Plane Truth

Alan Houston Johnson caused a scene on a Chicago-to-Denver flight in February by fondling two flight attendants and a passenger, according to police. The female flight attendants said that Johnson, who lived in North Carolina, had grabbed their butts multiple times. A third woman said Johnson had tried to dry-hump her against the bathroom door.

Gregory Thomas Burns thought the plane was still on the tarmac when he reportedly tried to open the emergency door to get out. It wasn't, and the 33-year-old New York man had to be restrained by fellow passengers. Burns told investigators he'd been drinking at Dulles International Airport and then thought he'd gotten on the wrong flight. And in a way, he had: After the altercation, the plane was diverted to Denver, where Burns was arrested.

A man flying Southwest Airlines from Philadelphia to Denver got into trouble in March when another passenger claimed he was masturbating beneath a blanket. "You caught me," he reportedly told her. Murali Krishna Nookella was arrested when the plane touched down: That kind of behavior just doesn't fly.

In January, Muhammad Abu Tahir, 47, was traveling from Atlanta to San Francisco when he "became upset and disruptive after flight attendants refused to serve him additional alcoholic drinks," according to arrest records; they apparently thought five mini wine bottles was enough. Refused more alcohol, Tahir locked himself in the bathroom, opening the door twice — once to put his shoes and socks outside, and again to reveal that he was shaving without his shirt on. Concerned by this bizarre behavior, the pilot decided to land in Colorado Springs, where Tahir was arrested.

On a November flight from Los Angeles to Denver, Brian Robert Dougal reclined his seat with the intention of going to sleep. But when he did, the passenger sitting behind him, Tom Zelenovic, bumped the seat, according to court records, saying, "Are you serious? My knees are up against the seat." Dougal reportedly turned and told Zelenovic that his knees were against the seat in front of him, too, and suggested that he move to an empty seat next to him. Zelenovic responded that he'd paid for his current seat and then "shook the back of Dougal's seat and grabbed Dougal's right ear and yanked it." Upon his arrival in Denver, Zelenovic was charged with assault.

In November, after the Transportation Safety Administration announced that it would begin irradiating and fondling travelers, a company called Rocky Flats Gear offered a solution: underwear made with a kind of metal that doesn't allow X-ray machines to see your junk. Designed by a Colorado inventor, the underpants even feature a fig-leaf design.

Sergei Berejnoi was so angry about missing a flight from Denver to Salt Lake City in October that he told SkyWest Airline employees there was a bomb in his suitcase, which was already loaded. That claim certainly held up the plane — which was delayed for an hour while it was searched — but it didn't help Berejnoi, 49, get on board. He was arrested and charged with suspicion of endangering public transportation.

Statue of Limitations

Denver International Airport is already the subject of many conspiracy theories — about underground aliens, end-of-the-world prophecies and a scary blue horse sculpture nicknamed Bluecifer. So it didn't help when the city installed an enormous statue of Anubis, the jackal-headed Egyptian god of the dead, as part of an effort to promote the current King Tut exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. Anubis later went on tour around the Denver area, popping up at Invesco Field and Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

In February, a 26-year-old motorist veered off of I-25 and smashed into a dinosaur sculpture made from old farm machinery. The sculpture, which had stood for two decades near the town of Timnath, was a landmark in northern Colorado.

Six months after the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals first began battling the city in an effort to place a statue of a battered, bloody chicken on crutches on the 16th Street Mall, the organization finally gave up. PETA had wanted to put the fiberglass statue, known as McCruelty, in front of a McDonald's. After the city denied PETA's application, several months of legal wrangling followed. Eventually, the organization decided to spend its time and money elsewhere, and flew off.

In April, a man who'd walked off with a $199 wooden beaver from the Beaver Creek Trading Post was detained at a bus stop, with beaver. The man told a security guard that he'd taken the beaver because it was sitting "in the middle of nowhere." The man, who may have had something to drink, was cited and released.

There Goes the Neighborhood

In July, a thief stole about 150 small garden gnomes from Arvada resident Mardean Gibson, who had been building her collection — worth about $2,000 — for five years. The perpetrator carried the gnomes off during the night. Most of the figurines — bearded and with pointy hats — had been given to Gibson as gifts.

After Eric Smith hung a yellow flag with a picture of a rattlesnake and the words "Don't Tread on Me" outside his Thornton home in August, the East York Villas Homeowners Association tried to do exactly that. 9News reported that the organization asked Smith to remove what it called a Tea Party flag (a flag with that design has been used at Tea Party demonstrations) and threatened to fine him $100 a day. But after the story went public, the HOA relented, sending Smith this note: "Please be advised, we have discussed this situation with the board of directors and the board has decided to allow the Tea Party flag to remain displayed on your property. Thus, you may disregard the request contained in the original letter."

Get Off the Road

In December, after a towing company took away a car that was blocking a driveway in downtown Denver, the tow-truck driver discovered that a nine-month-old baby had been left in the car, covered by a blanket. He called the cops, who had also received a 911 call from the child's parents, Guadalupe Torres-Sanchez and Rene Calderon. Both were cited for misdemeanor child abuse. The baby was fine.

Four people were killed and one person was injured by RTD buses between April and June — a number that convinced the metro transportation system to examine its driver policies. In July, another RTD bus caused a panic when the driver took it the wrong way on I-25.

A man flying west on I-70 was arrested in July after state troopers clocked him doing more than 100 mph in a 2010 BMW M3. No, it wasn't the Cannonball Run — the car was part of the Bullrun Live Rally, a cross-country race featuring a hundred vehicles. The driver, Nicholas Steinman, was charged with reckless driving. And, no, Dom DeLuise was not riding shotgun.